The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
by The Talking Absol
Summary: Some things just have to be resolved, even if they're supposed to be dead. -For the Sherry Squires contest; not based on the Goosebumps book-


For the Sherry Squires contest over at the account "Scarecrow Contests." I thought"…hey, what if…"and this happened. Not based on the Goosebumps book.

**The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight**

By: The Talking Absol

She hadn't wanted it to end this way.

Granted, she didn't think of Jonathan as more than just the skinny, poorly-dressed child in the back of the class, but she had morals. After all, she was a good Southern Belle, and she knew that it had been wrong.

But that didn't stop Bo from twisting her arm until it burned and telling her to do it.

She could still remember seeing Jon light up when she'd told him she'd go with him to the Halloween party. She'd felt nothing but disgust at the idea, but the thought of what was to come afterwards was slightly pleasing; gratification for the "date."

She'd taken him into the back towards midnight, preparing for the surprise herself. He was kinda cute when he was confused.

But still. There was much work to be done.

_"N-now wh-what?"_

_She'd almost laughed right there. Jeez, how ignorant could a guy get?_

_"Now, silly, you __kiss__ me!"_

_He looked like she'd just spoken a different language to him._

_He tried, hesitated, and then tried again to lean in and-_

_Bo should be here any second..._

_From behind them burst-_

_NO! Nonono! _

_That horrible, deadly-brown, spindly Scarecrow with the burning red eyes, cackling and laughing as Sherry screamed. He raised the sharp sickle high above his head and-_

Sherry Squires bolted upright in her bed, sweat pouring down her temple and chest, panting as breath quickly refilled her lungs. Realizing it had only been another nightmare, she put her head in her hands and wept.

**...::Later::...**

It had been over a year since the accident on Prom night. Nobody had seen it coming.

"Well, he was always the quiet one..." most kids mumbled.

Sherry ignored them. It was best to forget it ever happened, she figured. Forget and move on...

And besides, she had college to worry about. University of Georgia.

But those recent headlines weren't helping any.

_**"Scarecrow" killer strikes again- Arlen residents question if motive is from beyond the grave**_

So far, three people from her old highschool had been killed by a person in a Scarecrow costume. The police had said they'd all been found with their head chopped off, and then the heads were stuck onto a wooden pole out in the open area around where they had been killed (or so the police presumed- it was in the area of where they found their bodies and there weren't any tire tracks indicating the Scarecrow had driven the bodies around). They were all people who had-

"Sherry! Jeez, girl, didja not get enough sleep last night or what?" her friend, Lacy Smith, exclaimed beside her in class.

Sherry's eyes flew open, and she shook herself unsteadily. "Nah. Just had a nightmare last night."

"About what?" Lacy's interest was now piqued. She hadn't lived in Arlen for very long, so it was fitting that she didn't know.

"Nothing." Sherry didn't want to tell her.

"A nightmare about nothing?" Lacy looked genuinely confused, as if thinking there really were nightmares about nothing.

Sherry rolled her eyes. Her mind kept drifting to other places; it's a good thing she sat next to people she knew were typically paying attention.

It wasn't her fault- her classes were terribly boring and the incident still stung, even if she had tried not to care.

Later, in the hallways of the social Studies building, Sherry saw a junior, Heather Brackett, passing out flyers to pretty much anyone who walked by her.

"Party tonight in the cornfield! Bring lots of good stuff!" she cried out, throwing some up into the air.

"Oh wow! Sounds like fun!" Lacy commented, running up and grabbing a flyer.

"I could really go for a party soon." Sherry sighed with relief. She needed something to relax. As she passed Heather, however, a familiar face caught her eye, picking up another flyer.

She and Bo Briggs, her ex-boyfriend, locked eyes for only a second. Then, he looked away, eyes clouded. She turned and walked away, clutching her bookbag tighter.

Things...hadn't been well between them since that night.

They'd gotten into a big fight, and then both agreed it was better if they broke up.

She still liked him a lot, but they needed to work out their own feelings first before they tried to get back together.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Sherry was already planning her outfit for the party. Good God- she hadn't been to one since Prom of her senior year. She really needed to get out more.

But she was nervous about the whole "party in the cornfield" thing. That simply _screamed_: "Scarecrow! We're all getting roaring drunk in this large, open cornfield, so come along and finally chop your tormentors heads off!"

There would be too many people there, though. From the looks of things, and Heather's reputation, there would be lots of people. She'd be one of the crowd. For anyone to try and kill other people off in such a large crowd would be madness. Too many people would see and probably later go on to be witnesses against whoever did it.

Good, then. If this "Scarecrow" figure knew what was good for him, he'd leave them be.

As she moved on, walking towards the bus stop that would take her home, Bo stared out after Sherry. His shoulders slumped, but his intense gaze never left her.

**...::In the cornfield::...**

She felt like she hadn't had enough to drink.

She felt safe amongst the crowd, who was one, large, jumping-around and dancing group, but she needed something to dull the throbbing of her head.

So, risking it, Sherry pushed her way out of the crowd and towards the table filled with all kinds of beverages, including the alcoholic kind, which would hopefully drag her out of whatever funk she'd gotten herself into.

As she poured herself some lovely raspberry-flavored vodka, she saw Lacy flirting with some guy that sat across from her in History. Sherry smirked, thinking about how much Lacy had been talking about him the past few days, and how it was hopefully going to pay off soon.

Suddenly, the urge to relieve herself filled her. Sherry glanced around, spotting a grey building not too far off. She chanced another sip before putting her cup down on the table and making her way past the crowd and towards the building. As she did, something large and human-shaped caught her eye off to the side, and she very nearly wet herself when she turned her head to see a scarecrow up on a pole. Her heart pounding, her eyes looked it over only to see that it didn't have feet or actual eyes, just holes in the cloth. She blinked, slowly, and then hurried along towards the bathroom, remembering her quest.

When she had finished, she took her purse out and began to fix her makeup alone in the bathroom. The door swung open, and she jumped, yelping, as Bo walked in.

"We need to talk." he said.

"Like hell we do." she spat, "Now get out of here. This is the girls restroom- can't you read?"

"No, Sherry, we really need to talk. This is important..."

Sherry's mind was already flashing back.

_BANGBANGBANG_

_"What the- Guns?"_

_"But who's shooting-?"_

_"What's happening, Bo?"_

_"I...I don't know, Sherry, but maybe we should-"_

Everything had gone all wrong. She later figured out he was only trying to scare them.

He hadn't expected Bo to stand on the gas pedal that fast. Sherry could still remember his hands, one with the gun (she later found out it was only a water pistol), hitting the hood, the look of surprise turning to fear as he realized his costume was becoming entangled in the sharp edges between the hood and the body of the car...

The screech of brakes rang in her head, even as her head hit the windshield but didn't go through.

But the sound of Jonathan's body, finally freeing itself, only to get caught between the tree they'd slammed into and the car, would be the one haunting her nightmares forever.

_SQUEEELCH_

**...::Back at the party::...**

The man Lacy had been talking to, Jason "Red" Shooster, made his way out of the crowd and towards the bathrooms only minutes after Bo and Sherry. Lacy was a nice girl, he thought, if a bit dumb and talkative. But those ones were always the best in bed anyway.

A shape caught his eye, and when he glanced at the pole Sherry had not minutes ago, he only saw the pole.

His first thought was: '_Well fuck, that's weird. A pole but no scarecrow-_'

This thought was interrupted by the shriek of fright that came up from the area near the bathroom. Jason's mind became clearer when the sound shattered his thoughts, but then they turned to panic.

The crowd went silent and the music was turned off. Whispers ran through it like fish or leaves in a stream.

"What was that?"

"Do you think-"

"I thought I saw something earlier-"

Jason had gone to Arlen High. He felt a tremor wreak his body as memories of their own Scarecrow, the one they'd all tormented to no end, came back.

Just as he was backing up towards the safety of the crowd, he felt himself bump into something. With his slight disorientation, he'd been going sideways instead of backwards. He didn't get the chance to realize this.

He turned his head, slowly but surely, only to look up into a pair of bright red, glowing red eyes behind a cloth-stitched face and straw hair.

"**Boo**." the deep voice in the Scarecrow mask said.

Jason screamed, but it was cut off, literally, as the scythe swung across his neck, blood splattering and squirting out the arteries, not realizing they weren't pumping towards anything anymore.

The crowd erupted into chaos when Jason's head rolled out from the cornfield around them. It only got worse when the Scarecrow stepped out, twirling his scythe and whistling some ancient tune.

Strangely, he didn't target anyone specifically, or so it seemed. He was just swinging at random people, and whether they fought back or tried to run or even fell down, he chopped off their heads, one by one. Most of the crowd had, thankfully, made it out and were starting their cars to leave. Lacy, however, didn't have the opportunity, as someone had knocked her down as they were running past her. She yelped, and seeing the Scarecrow approach, bolted up and fortunately dodged past him to run through the cornfield and towards the bathrooms, which would hopefully lock behind her. She may have been a ditz, but she had survival instincts like a bear.

As she neared, she heard banging and yelling on the door of the woman's restroom, and a chair, taken from God-knew-where, was stuck under the door handle, trapping the person inside. Lacy was still screaming as she approached, and ripping the chair out from under the handle, she threw open the door and promptly slammed it shut behind her.

She had seen Sherry walking off towards the bathroom earlier, so she already felt safer knowing her friend was there.

"Oh my God Sherry, you won't believe-" She turned around, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I'm not Sherry!" Bo spat.

"Wait." Lacy stated, backing up. "Where'd Sherry go?"

"Hell if I know! I tried to talk to her, and then her eyes went all hazy and she left, locking me inside!"

Lacy thought about it for a moment. "Why are you in the girl's bathroom?" she asked.

Just then, the door behind them swung open, banging against the wall beside it as the Scarecrow stormed in, blood-red scythe casually by his side.

He raised it just as Bo and Lacy screamed.

With great effort, Lacy leapt up and ripped the mask off the Scarecrow.

Auburn hair.

Brown eyes.

The glint of madness faded.

Lacy gasped, her mind trying to grasp what she saw.

"Sh-Sherry?" she stammered.

Sherry blinked, her eyes blank. She blinked once more, and suddenly gave a jolt, like she'd awoken from a dream.

"Wh...what..." she started, and looked around herself. Reality finally hit her, and she screamed at the blood on her.

She noticed her costume, and looked up at Lacy and Bo, who both stared at her in fright.

"I...I'm the Scarecrow?" Her eyes filled with tears.

"What do you mean? You didn't know?" Bo cried, taking another step backwards towards the door.

"I-I-I wasn't...I didn't..." She dropped the scythe, falling to her knees and putting her head in her hands, "I didn't! I just...I blacked out! It felt like...it felt like I was sleeping..."

Bo and Lacy glanced at each other, and slowly dropped down to her level, Lacy reaching out to put a comforting hand on Sherry's shoulder.

"But...but why? Why would you do this Sherry?" Bo asked. Lacy gave him a dirty look, but the question had a point.

"I...I don't know. I just don't, okay?" She threw her hands down, glaring at Bo with a face full of tears, "I felt like...I felt like I had to finish what Jonathan started. Like I owed him a favor."

"You don't! He's dead, Sherry. D-E-A-D. The police said-"

"Screw you!" she spat, reaching up and slapping him, "What we did was wrong! What we all did was wrong!"

Her eyes took on that strange, red color again, her right shoulder shaking Lacy's hand off to quickly grab the scythe. Lacy screamed and backed up, and Bo shot to his feet, fear etched in both of their eyes.

She...no, _he_ loved it. She could hear Jonathan behind her, chuckling darkly as she swung the weapon forward.

"And I'm going to fix it for him!"

_And it would not end until she had satisfied his craving; fed his eternal soul with what he wanted and whispered to her at night and in the costume._

_She would be his Scarecrow; the Scarecrow he could never become._

END...?

I thought that this would be kind-of a different entry for the contest. Jon's dead instead of Sherry and Bo, Sherry takes his place as the Scarecrow, AND she's bat-shit crazy.

Sorry it's so short and awkward- only one-shots or drabble allowed in the contest.

And I may not post my Hair High crossover; I think it would require at least two or three chapters, and that's not allowed. Otherwise, it'll be a long-ass one shot.

Everyone in this can be owned by DC for all that I care. Lacy and Jason can die...oh wait they did...haha... -is shot-


End file.
